Many food and beverage products are produced from a concentrate. A concentrate is a form of substance which has had the majority of its intermediate product (which in the case of a liquid is a solvent) removed. Typically, a concentrate is produced by the removal of water from a solution or suspension, such as the removal of water from fruit juice. One benefit of producing a concentrate is that of a reduction in weight and volume for transportation as the concentrate can be re-constituted at the time of usage by the addition of the solvent.
Developing a production plan for food and beverage products made from a concentrate presents unique challenges for a business unit manager. For example, the input material for fruit-based beverages (i.e., fruit) can be highly variable in available quantity, cost, and quality. As a further example, the available quantity, cost, and quality of fruit can depend on hurricane activity or if an early freeze occurs. Thus, the supply of available fruit for beverages can be highly variable across multiple geographic regions. Consumer demand and price sensitivity are also important aspects to consider in concentrated food and beverage production. In particular, the volume of a food or beverage produced should be sufficient to meet consumer demand at a price consumers will bear. In the production of concentrated food and beverage products, meeting consumer demand includes the blending optimization of various components so as to deliver consistent taste, texture and/or other properties. For example, a concentrated orange juice beverage may be blended from a variety of different types of juices with the blend or composition determining the overall taste, texture and other properties of the resulting drink. Previous blending techniques do not necessarily allow the manufacturing process to be optimized in terms of utilizing raw materials to their fullest extent or in terms of maintaining a product having consistent component attribute profiles (e.g., taste, texture, shelf life and costs) despite variances in the supply of the components of the product. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.